did not satisfy him. Politically, while Pitts had held left wing views in his youth, he shifted to more conservative opinions. Almost all of his friends and colleagues were liberal intellectuals and solid Democrats (Democratic Party (United States)), but Pitts was never reticent to debate issues, often appearing on talk shows and as a columnist for various publications. The Tocqueville Review Pitts founded The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville in 1978 and was its editor until 1991. The Review is a French-American bilingual journal devoted to the comparative study of social change in the spirit of Alexis de Tocqueville's pioneer investigations. Pitts recruited many of his colleagues to author essays on current affairs, history, and political philosophy. In 2003, at the memorial event in Charlottesville, Professor Ted Caplow, first president and founder of the Tocqueville Society, defined the review as:"...a proud monument and one that will long honor him." Caplow also said: "...its intellectual standards are exceptionally high and it continues to attract contributions, both in English and French, from major scholars and public figures on both sides of the Atlantic." Pitts was a member of the Tocqueville Jury which awarded the Prix Alexis de Tocqueville to international scholars. Retirement In 1986, Jesse retired to Charlottesville. The Department of Sociology at UVA recruited him to teach an occasional course as a lecturer. Fully retiring in 1991, both from teaching and as editor of the Tocqueville Review, he concentrated on writing his war memories and devoted much time with former crewmen of the Penny Ante and other friends from his Bomb Group the 379th. He also joined the Virginia Chapter of the Historical Society (Eighth Air Force) and launched its Newsletter: Plane Talk, and served as editor until 1997. His health declining, Pitts barely finished his Memoirs. He died peacefully on August 2, 2003 and was buried in Charlottesville with military honors. His Memoirs were published in 2004, under the title Return to Base, in hard cover followed by a British paper back edition in 2006. A French translation, Retour sur Kimbolton, was published in Paris in 2006, and a second edition appeared in 2009. Publications 1957: The Bourgeois Family and French Economic Retardation, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University 1961: Theories of Society: Foundations of Modern Sociological Theory, Two Volumes in One, with Talcott Parsons (Editor), Edward Shils & Kaspar D. Naegele, New York: The Free Press 1963: In Search of France co-authored